Content Creators Take Center Stage: Do Social Media Stars Drive Broadway Ticket Sales?

Social media’s role on Broadway has been increasing over the last couple of years. Shows like The Great Gatsby and Maybe Happy Ending have been able to ride social media virality to either help overcome early struggles, or outperform expectations based on critical and awards reception. Other long-running shows like Hadestown and Moulin Rouge! have been able to use social media and virality to successfully promote their recent cast additions. But a recently growing subsection is using social media influencers in the cast as selling points. As shows go throughout their lifecycle, inevitably they turn to “stunt casting”, casting a celebrity of some kind to help drive ticket sales. 

This trend started just before the pandemic. In the fall of 2019, Colleen Ballinger was the first major instance of a social media influencer or content creator making their Broadway debut. At the time, her YouTube Channels had a combined nearly 20 million subscribers. She debuted in a limited 4 week run in Waitress in the role of Dawn, to very decent success. In the four weeks preceding her joining the cast, Waitress averaged $600k a week in grosses. That jumped up to over $900k a week during her run, with the first two weeks of her run selling out with standing room only (it’s worth noting that one of those weeks was the Labor Day holiday and so would have had elevated grosses anyways). After her departure, Waitress slumped back down to the mid $600s and would close three months later.  Colleen Ballinger’s tenure was a success however and paved the way for more content creators on Broadway stages.

Three months later, in January of 2020, Cameron Dallas joined the cast of Mean Girls for a limited four-week run in the role of Aaron. Structurally, it was very similar to Colleen Ballingers, a limited run in a quieter part of the season, cast in a supporting role. His run did not have the same success as hers, however, with the grosses dipping during his run, and his performance was panned by audiences and critics alike. Mean Girls did not reopen after the pandemic, playing its final performance on March 11, 2020.

Since the pandemic, it had been relatively quiet on the casting content creator’s front, even as producers turn to more stunt casting in an attempt to counter rising costs. The first instance post-pandemic happened in September 2022, when The Try Guys appeared with Beetlejuice and Try Guys Owner Keith Habersberger performed in the ensemble of the show for one night only. He was then able to use his fame to launch a commercially successful off-Broadway show titled Lewberger and the Wizard of Friendship in the winter of 2023.

But on Broadway things didn’t pick up until about a year ago when TikTok star (and former most followed person in the world on any platform) Charli D’Amelio made her debut in &Juliet.  There were a couple of things that made her casting different, she was in the ensemble of the show, rather than a leading or supporting role. She also joined the cast on an open-ended contract, which makes the commercial success of her casting a difficult one to measure. But she was part of the cast for &Juliet’s highest grossing week of their run last winter, and along with Joey Fatone, was certainly part of &Juliet’s relative success this year. TikTok vocal coach Cheryl Porter has also recently joined the cast of &Juliet and her run is ongoing, although it seems to be less financially successful so far, with these last few weeks in particular being among the lowest of &Juliet’s run so far. 

This week, Trisha Paytas makes her debut in Beetlejuice as Maxie Dean. Earlier this year, she helmed a successful one night only performance entitled Trisha Paytas’s Big Broadway Dream. Trisha Paytas has over 10 million followers on TikTok, over 5 million subscribers on YouTube, and nearly 2 million followers on Instagram, and her run is a mix of the different models we’ve seen succeed so far. It’s a shorter run, like that of Colleen Ballinger’s, and it’s in an ensemble role, like Charlie D’Amelio. Beetlejuice will be hoping to recreate their successes, as grosses have lagged early on in the first national tours final stop. 

It’s tough to know how much content creators and social media influencers will affect Broadway ticket-buyers, because their audiences tend to skew younger. And even though younger audiences are a growing share of the Broadway market, and there is evidence to suggest that those audiences are willing to pay more, shows that appeal to younger demographics have had mixed success at best. Regardless, Trisha Paytas’s tenure in Beetlejuice will likely set the tone for whether or not content creators and influencers are seen as viable stunt casts in the near future.